1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to foot control apparatus for an electronic musical instrument, and more particularly to such an instrument adapted to be controlled in its operation entirely by the feet of an operator.
2. The Prior Art
In the performance of musical compositions, accompaniment is frequently desirable, in the form of sounds produced concurrently with, and complementary to, the sounds of a solo instrument. In some cases automatic apparatus is used to generate accompaniment sounds on a continuous, regular basis. It is desirable to change the quality of the accompaniment sounds during the performance of the composition, however, and this is not ordinarily possible when it requires the attention of the soloist to be diverted from the playing of the solo instrument.
While another musician, if available, could produce the accompaniment sounds without requiring the attention of the soloist, it is, of course, more economical to produce the required accompaniment sounds with as few musicians as possible.
One type of accompaniment sounds which is desirable is bass-type sounds. Although many instruments have been devised for producing bass-type sounds, most of them require the full attention of a musician. Only in keyboard instruments, such as organs, has a means been provided in the past for permitting the production of bass-type sounds, by providing a pedal clavier for that purpose. By this means, a musician can produce bass-type sounds by using his feet. Customarily, hand-operated controls are provided on the control panel of the organ for controlling the pitch and other qualities of the sounds produced in response to pedal operation.
The bass pedal systems heretofore known are limited to the production of certain limited types of bass tones, and even these generally require the musician to manipulate manual controls, which diverts his attention from playing a solo instrument.
It is therefore desirable to provide apparatus capable of producing accompaniment or bass-type sounds which is not limited in the ways that prior art apparatus has been limited.